One month from right now, the always-busy Mountain Goats will launch their new album By This Hearth Throughout From Peter Balkan. It’s an idea LP about shipwreck survivors dwelling on a desert island, and it’s devoted to Peter Hughes, the longtime bassist who left the band final yr. The Mountain Goats are releasing this one on their very own Cadmean Daybreak label, and band member Matt Douglas produced it. Lin-Manuel Miranda sings backup on a number of songs, and Replacements hero Tommy Stinson performs bass on just a few. Loopy, proper?
We’ve already posted “Armies Of the Lord,” thelead single from By This Hearth Throughout From Peter Balkan. As we speak, the Mountain Goats share two new tracks, “Chilly At Night time” and “Rocks In My Pockets.” The previous is a twitchy, layered quantity, and it’s one of many songs that options each Lin-Manuel Miranda and Tommy Stinson. The latter is a comparatively naked acoustic quantity, and it’d sound just a little extra acquainted to folks with a hard and fast thought of how a Mountain Goats observe may sound. Right here is our man John Darnielle’s all-caps dispatch concerning the two songs:
A GREAT GOOD DAY TO ALL WHO SAIL THE TREACHEROUS WATERS OF OUR BROKEN WORLD. WE, THE MOUNTAIN GOATS, COME BEARING NEW SONGS, NOT JUST ONE AS IN FORMER DAYS BUT TWO, AS THERE IS A NEED FOR MORE SONGS. “COLD AT NIGHT” IS ABOUT A SHIPWRECK AND ITS IMMEDIATE AFTERMATH. BASS ON “COLD” IS BY TOMMY STINSON WHO YOU KNOW FROM THE REPLACEMENTS AND GUNS ‘N’ ROSES. GUITARS ON “COLD” ARE BY JOSH KAUFMAN, WHO YOU KNOW FROM BONNY LIGHT HORSEMAN, THE NATIONAL, BOB WEIR, AND A PROMISING YOUNG ARTIST NAMED TAYLOR SWIFT, AND BY MATT DOUGLAS, WHO PRODUCED THESE TRACKS AND WROTE THE STRING ARRANGEMENTS. “ROCKS IN MY POCKETS” IS A SOLILOQUY FROM ADAM, ONE OF THREE SURVIVORS FROM THE WRECK. IT IS THE LAST WE HEAR FROM HIM. HARP BY THE GREAT MIKAELA DAVIS. ALL THREE MEMBERS OF THE MOUNTAIN GOATS — JON, JOHN, AND MATT — PLAY GUITARS ON “ROCKS,” AND THE TRACK IS LIVE EXCEPT FOR THE PERCUSSION AND HARP OVERDUBS. HARMONY & RESPONSE VOCALS ON “COLD AT NIGHT” ARE BY LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA, WHO SANG AS CHARLEY IN THE 2012 “MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG” CONCERT. I WILL NEVER GET OVER HAVING A GUY WHO HAS SUNG SONDHEIM ONSTAGE ON MY ALBUM: THANKS, BUD. THE REST OF YOU: ENJOY!
And right here go the songs themselves:
A short time in the past, the Mountain Goats shared just a few movies that don’t characteristic any music. As a substitute, it’s John Darnielle speaking concerning the album’s fundamental thought and the very thought of writing a musical, and it’s Matt Douglas speaking about producing it. You guys like listening to Darnielle discuss, proper? I do know I do.
By This Hearth Throughout From Peter Balkan is out 11/7 on Cadean Daybreak Data.